>>New Target Member Exclusive Lesson Addition - Fretboard Geometry Part 4 - Doug Young

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dougyoung
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Mon Mar 03, 2014 11:40 pm

The Dorian+.... thing. Let's see if I can explain this without any heads exploding, including mine. let's look at the top half of each scale (and I'm trying to sort of line these up - EDIT -oops they don't line up, oh well...)

Dorian:

5 6 b7 8

Natural (Aolean)

5 b6 b7 8

Melodic

5 6 7 8

Harmonic

5 b6 7 8

If you were making up a minor melody, or improvising and decided "what the heck, I'll use any of those minors, or all of them", you'd be able to pick from

5 b6 6 b7 7 8 - that's every chromatic note in the top half of the scale!

Or to attach notes to this, say an Am scale, you'd have the 1st half as A B C D, then you could play any of E F, F#, G, G#, A. in that case, are you using one of the minor scales or all of them?

There are even tunes that use this as a key element, like My Funny Valentine - or Stairway to Heaven.

As for the melodic minor having the two forms - yeah, that's the classical harmony concept. But when I think about scales, I'm thinking about jazz or rock, or folk improvisation, or making up a melody, and all those rules kind of go out the window. I just have a bag of notes I can use.

There are also other ways to think about these pitches that have more to do with chords than scales. Especially for fingerstyle, I'm less likely to worry about whether I'm playing some scale pattern with rules about how they go up and down, and more interested in the sound of each note relative to a chord. So I might want a "dorian sound" (raised 6th), or an aolean sound (b6), and so on. Each note has a color that can be used when you want it. Hopefully, I'll get into that later on in the series (and book). Especially in minor keys, you can have fun with changing the mode. I have tune on You Tube that's from my DADGAD book ("Example 184") where I deliberately go back and forth between natural minor and Dorian. In Dm, that means playing a Bb or a B natural, giving you a iv chord of Gm (or Bb) or G major, which creates a nice "lift" when you switch to the major sound. It's actually pretty common in some celtic-flavoured tunes. Pierre Bensusan uses it, Al Petteway uses it. Hope that's not drifting too far afield.....


thereshopeyet
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Tue Mar 04, 2014 12:57 am

Doug

Gosh, thanks for explaining that.

I see what you mean..... top half....all the chromatic notes.

It never occurred to me that you could possibly ignore the ascending / descending scale issue
being a beginner I tend to think everything is set in stone.

I suppose it comes back to if it sounds good then it's good.
and that is probably flexible too as it depends on the individual listener,
as we're all different.

I look forward to your lesson regarding chords and chord tones in relation to everything too.

Thanks Again

Dermot

:)


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TGNeil
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Tue Mar 04, 2014 9:14 am

willem wrote:

clear!,,great idea with the tuner..

When I hear a majeur scale i Always hear do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti -do ,,don't no what I hear with a minor..

Willem
Willem,

One of the ways you can hear or sing a minor scale is to start with Do-Re-Mi and sing back down from Do to La (Do-Ti-La), then start there (on La) and sing up only to La again.

La-Ti-Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La

Work this forward and back, possibly stopping briefly on Do to emphasize the difference and get it clearer in your head.

Let me know if this makes sense.

Neil


willem
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Tue Mar 04, 2014 3:22 pm

TGNeil wrote:
willem wrote:

clear!,,great idea with the tuner..

When I hear a majeur scale i Always hear do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti -do ,,don't no what I hear with a minor..

Willem
Willem,

One of the ways you can hear or sing a minor scale is to start with Do-Re-Mi and sing back down from Do to La (Do-Ti-La), then start there (on La) and sing up only to La again.

La-Ti-Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La

Work this forward and back, possibly stopping briefly on Do to emphasize the difference and get it clearer in your head.

Let me know if this makes sense.

Neil
It made sense( I hope..see picture) and realise it has more to do with singin and I don't want to confuse things up, in our choir we practice a lot the major scale in that way(before we practice on the real songs we do),,now I have to ask why we don't do the minor scale..

Image

Doug,,great lessons,,my head hurts,,I want it in bits...

Willem B)


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